The Disney Skyliner gondola system, a sleek new mode of transportation beginning its operation
in Walt Disney World next year.
Connecting 2 parks with four resort hotels, not only will this system provide us with
never-before-seen views around property, it’s also expected to get you to your destination
faster than ever before.
Over the last year, we’ve seen this gondola system come together, with the pace at which
Disney has constructed the stations and hundreds of gondola columns in between being nothing
short of remarkable.
Despite all of this, there has been a fly in the ointment since day one with Disney
Skyliner system, and that is the air conditioning.
At first, the question of air conditioning a Disney transportation system that places
you inside a steel contraption in the direct heat of the Florida sun, isn’t a question
at all.
Of course Disney is going to air condition the gondolas.
But that’s the thing, from everything we know right now, they aren’t.
After months of Disney insiders going back and forth on the topic of whether or not the
Disney Skyliner gondolas will be air conditioned, finally most have reached a conclusion.
It turns out that the A/C said to be included in each gondola car according to the internal
documents, is in fact a lower-case ac.
Which doesn’t stand for air conditioning, but rather air circulation.
Air circulation is different from air conditioning, because rather than having a unit on top of
the gondola car that generates cold air, cooling the cabin automatically, air circulation instead
uses the available air to passively cool the guests inside the gondola car via air vents.
This means as the gondola moves, air is moving through the cabin, providing fresh air and
theoretically managing the temperature all on its own.
When this realization of no A/C on the gondolas was made by members of the Disney community,
further confirmed by the absence of any air conditioning unit on the Skyliner gondola
test car Disney is currently using to ensure the gondolas fit in each station, many rushed
to the defense of there being no air conditioning.
The theory goes as follows.
Since the Skyliner gondolas will be going 11 miles per hour or perhaps faster, some
even say 16 miles per hour, not only will the speed of the gondolas be pushing plenty
of fresh air through the vents and into the cabin, cooling the guests throughout the ride,
but also, even if the circulation wasn’t enough and it was getting hot in there, the
maximum travel time between two Disney Skyliner stops, the Riviera to Epcot line, is five
minutes or less.
Other lines are even shorter with estimated travel times all the way down to two minutes,
or maybe even less than that!
So the idea is, since you’re on the gondolas so briefly and since they’ll be going so
quickly, not only will you likely be cooled throughout the ride, but also you’ll only
be in that gondola car for a very short while.
These are all good points, but there is one huge asterisk here, this whole argument is
assuming normal operation.
The thing is, we all know Disney doesn’t plan their transportation systems around normal
operation.
In the interests of guest safety, Disney always wants to ensure they’re prepared for that
one time the system isn't under normal operation, where the system gets emergency stopped, with
guests potentially sitting in gondola cars hanging on the line directly in the exposure
of the sweltering Florida sun for a duration that could be a lot more than five minutes.
Whether it’s guest capacity reasons or cost related reasons, it appears Disney has opted
against air conditioning for the Skyliner system.
So the question becomes, in that inevitable once-in-a-blue moon case in which the system
isn’t operating normally, how does Disney ensure guests don’t get too hot in these
enclosed gondolas.
Disney can choose to go with the method they use with their other modes of transportation,
by having an additional window vent guests can open to allow more air into the cabin.
This is a serious possibility, as the Doppelmayr Omega-4 vehicles Disney is deploying are manufactured
with glass faces on every side from top to bottom, but in the Disney Skyliner concept
art there appears to be a metal bar coss-secting the glass near the top of the gondola cabin.
Could that perhaps be a separate piece of glass guests can open up top to let cool air
in as well as let warm air out?
As far as why air conditioning wouldn’t be included in the Skyliner system to begin
with, while the first thought that comes to mind is budget, those AC units wouldn’t
be cheap, do consider the fact that the Skyliner system is already projected to be under severe,
strenuous guest demand.
Especially when everyone tries to leave a park and board the system all at once, like
after Illuminations.
Or rather the new show replacing Illuminations, where guests spending the day over in Galaxy’s
Edge may take the skyliner over to Epcot to catch the new fireworks show, resulting in
all of the connected Epcot guests and many Hollywood Studios guests who all went over
to see the new show, all trying to get back on the Skyliner system all at once through
a single station, which has a small ramp making up it’s entire queuing space.
Point being, guest capacity is very important for this system, so putting as many cars as
possible on the Skyliner wire where it is still safe as far as the weight on the line
goes, but also as efficient as possible is in Disney’s best interest.
Not having those clunky air conditioning units on the top of every gondola car is sure to
free up weight on the wire for more cars and therefore more guests being able to use the
system at any given time, which could signal a major shift in the way Disney measures their
success in the parks moving forward.
For the last five years or so, with stifling attendance growth, Disney has focused mainly
on guest comfort, adding more perks for annual passholders, offering park guests extra paid
events, harnessing the power of the current guests by getting each of them to spend more,
raising guest revenues that way, versus trying to get as many guests as possible into the
parks at any given time.
With Galaxy’s Edge on the way though and the huge projected crowds there, it’s quite
possible the pendulum could start going back the other way towards perhaps Disney catering
the transportation and park offerings to support a larger number of guests, rather than focusing
on the existing guests spending more.
No matter the final vision that comes to life next year with the Disney Skyliner gondola
system, it’s safe to make one thing clear: which does Disney value most, guest quantity
or guest quality.
From the Mickey Views Magic Studio, I’m Brayden Holness.
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